


What is Seen and What Is - Judith Sees

by TWDObsessive



Series: What Is Seen and What Is. [11]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Love, M/M, Memories, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:22:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22975489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TWDObsessive/pseuds/TWDObsessive
Summary: Another installment to my "What is Seen and What is" series.  Just trying again to stretch my legs a bit before diving into posting a long chaptered WIP.So I forgot to thank my beta when I posted my last one-shot so I want to doubly thank LOTR58 for this one.  She is great at feedback and editing and coming up with ideas.  In fact the next chaptered fic I'm going to post was inspired by her ideas.For the purposes of this series, Richonne isn't a thing.  You can read this by itself, it's not necessary to read all the other installments.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Rick Grimes
Series: What Is Seen and What Is. [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/372245
Comments: 13
Kudos: 67





	What is Seen and What Is - Judith Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Another installment to my "What is Seen and What is" series. Just trying again to stretch my legs a bit before diving into posting a long chaptered WIP. 
> 
> So I forgot to thank my beta when I posted my last one-shot so I want to doubly thank LOTR58 for this one. She is great at feedback and editing and coming up with ideas. In fact the next chaptered fic I'm going to post was inspired by her ideas. 
> 
> For the purposes of this series, Richonne isn't a thing. You can read this by itself, it's not necessary to read all the other installments.

I miss my dad. I only have a few pictures of him and a video from when he had a full mountain man beard. He looked haunted in that video and even though I love to watch it so I can see him, it makes me sad. I wish I could have had him longer before the world took him away from us. But I did get one thing that kinda helps to keep him with me -- Daryl. Yes, I knew about them, just like everyone else.

When everyone else tells you their stories, it’s about the moment they figured it out, the moment they realized that Daryl and my dad were soulmates. I can’t tell that story, because for me   
there was never one without the other. There wasn’t a thing that happened, there was just a thing that was.

People tell me stories so often about the early days that sometimes I feel like I remember them myself even though it’s not possible. But I feel like I remember Daryl feeding me my first bottle. I’ve heard that story so often -- this dirty, angry redneck pushing everyone out of the way to say that this is OUR baby. This baby belongs to all of us and if she’s hungry then we will feed her. 

My dad wanted to feed me, he wanted to care for me. I don’t hold his anguish against him. He’d just lost his first and only love at the time and I was just a wrinkly little stranger. Daryl’s love for my dad immediately turned into love for his children, so I was born into that warmth from the start and I never knew any differently.

There’s another story I often hear. One from before Alexandria about a group of us trudging aimlessly -- hungry, thirsty, and lost. Daryl and my Dad kept their eyes on one another the whole time. They came together at night to cradle me to sleep between them. They kept each other strong and I remember the soft whisper of their voices above me as they talked each night before they fell asleep. I couldn’t understand the words but I knew the tone. It was effortless love, admiration, awe. It was two being one.

When my dad died, everyone came back from the bridge utterly broken. Michonne was inconsolable for weeks and then moved to the Kingdom. Maggie packed up too and left shortly thereafter. A lot of people came and went from Hilltop and the Kingdom. Aaron, the King, Carol, Jesus, Tara, Enid, Jerry. Everyone was grieving in their own way. I got a lot of hugs and presents as people came and went. But one person stayed with me. Daryl. It was a forgone conclusion to everyone that I would be his. I was always his, his and my dad’s. 

Daryl slept on a chair in my room every night. And every morning we went for long walks by the river. He didn’t tell me he still had hope and that he was looking for my dad. But I knew what he was doing. We talked a lot about Carl and my Dad and a lot of times Daryl would walk away from me mid-story to hide his tears. 

One day about five or six years after my dad had passed, we were camping out by that river bed. He still hadn’t found anything to prove my dad was dead and even though I felt certain he was, I didn’t have the heart to say that to Daryl, so we continued to look.

“Eat your veggies,” he grumbled one night at our campfire. He was in a mood. I knew he was thinking about my dad, maybe starting to lose hope.

“Tell me a story about dad,” I pushed.

“You done heard ‘em all already. Ain’t you bored of ‘em yet?”

“Tell me about the first time you realized he was your soulmate.”

Daryl laughed and shook his head, looking up to the stars instead of back at me.

“He never wasn’t my soul mate, little ass-kicker.”

I stayed quiet so he’d keep talking. 

“From the moment I came out of them woods and seen your old man tryna kick a walker to death, I was somehow connected to him.”

“I thought you guys hated each other at first,” I said.

Daryl smiled, his eyes haunted like he was actually looking right at my dad as we spoke. “Hate and Love are storta interwoven. Can’t know one without the other.” Daryl hugged his knees as he continued.

“Your dad, man. He was everything in my world. He was the light and the darkness. He was my heart and my strength. He was my reason for everything and anything. He still is.”

“You think you’ll find him one day,” I said. It wasn’t a question because I already knew the answer.

“I know he’s still out there. And I know he’s trying to get back to us. And there ain’t no other way I can live then with that as fact.”

Daryl will never stop looking for my dad. Who knows, maybe he’s right and the famous Rick Grimes is hurt somewhere, captured maybe, and desperate to get home to his family. If people can believe in a God after what he’s done to this world, then me and Daryl can believe in the life of a man who tried to save it. There’s nothing wrong with believing in that.

**Author's Note:**

> So, here's what I currently have in my Google Docs:
> 
> Behind the Lens (22k so far with 14 chapters completed)- Rick and Daryl meet while doing a porn. (Was intended to be a porn without plot one-shot but of course turned into a mushy love story.
> 
> Into the Great Wide Open (10k so far with 6 chapters completed)- Daryl is picked up with Rick in the helicopter and they are both taken to a new community.
> 
> Grady Psychiatric (10k so far with 8 chapters completed)- Daryl and Rick meet as teens in a mental hospital.
> 
> Several other shorter stories with just a small start:  
> The Journey- Rick and Daryl meet early in the walker virus and team together to work their way through the city to get Merle from the Jail and Carl from his mother's house.  
> Finding Sophia- Daryl actually finds Sophia alive while on the farm.
> 
> Ideas I haven't even started yet:  
> The Bridge- Michonne is the one who blows up on the bridge and Daryl comforts Rick afterwards.  
> Amish Country- Both boys grew up Amish. Rick had left the community for years after Rumspringa but comes back for Daryl.
> 
> I don't have as much time to write as I used to and my muse (seeing Rick and Daryl together in new episodes) is gone. But I still really enjoy writing these two guys together so I'll continue to try to work on all these stories. I'm thinking I might start posting Behind the Lens in the next couple weeks. 
> 
> Enjoy the show tonight everyone!


End file.
